The 2004 Illinois Author of the Year: Ms. Fern Chapman

by Stephen B. Heller

I.A.T.E. is pleased to recognize Ms. Fern Schumer Chapman as the 2004 recipient for the Illinois Author of the Year. Ms. Chapman will be accepting this recognition at the October 15 banquet in Oakbrook, Illinois.

Ms. Chapman has earned much recognition for her best-selling memoir Motherland. An evocative account of an escapee’s life from Nazi Germany, Ms. Chapman chronicles a return trip to Germany with her mother, who was able to flee her oppressors as a child. Motherland’s journey is equally about the present and the future as it is about the past, as Ms. Chapman explores issues of her own identity, and in a broader sense, those biological and cultural factors which influence who we are. What is also compelling about this memoir is the story of contemporary Germany and how it has learned to reconcile its past with its present. Much as Ms. Chapman’s identity can only be confirmed by returning to her past, so, too, can a nation begin to understand itself better by revisiting its history.

In Motherland author Fern Chapman returns to the German home of her mother called Stockstadt, from which Ms. Chapman’s mother escaped as a young child. During the journey, her mother revisits old friends and acquaintances as she begins to learn more about the home she had to leave. While Motherland spares the reader many of the graphic horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, the memoir’s impact lies more with the issues of loss and abandonment--and they thus have a more universal appeal.

Motherland was previously honored as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Film rights to Motherland have been optioned for Hallmark Entertainment by producer David Picker. Production is expected to start in spring 2004.

Motherland was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show as a book that powerfully portrays the bonds of family amid difficult legacies. It is also a text very much about the power of endurance and healing, particularly among women. Indeed, Ms. Chapman and her mother become microcosms for the larger suffering and healing of the millions who suffered at the hands of the Holocaust. In school curricula dedicated to the pursuit of diversity awareness, history, and the understanding of one’s national or international roots, Motherland provides an unusual mix of all of these traits.

Ms. Chapman has been a featured speaker in Chicagoland schools on the issues of the Holocaust and her memoir. Ms. Chapman has also spoken with students in California, Louisiana and Colorado. She is available for online chats and audio participation in book club discussions, and Ms. Chapman has also prepared teaching materials to accompany her book.

Kenneth Patchen (Pioneer Press 2004), staff writer for the Highland Park News, writes: "At a time when most books sell for about six months and then die on the discount table, Motherland is still being bought, taught and discussed, even though the title -- ‘Motherland - Beyond the Holocaust: A Daughter's Journey to Reclaim the Past’ -- can be deceptive."

Many schools currently teach Elie Wiesel’s Night as the signature piece for holocaust studies. Patchen notes that only six states have mandated the study of holocaust literature, although other states recommend it be taught and other states include Holocaust education in their social studies standards. California, Florida, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York require it to be taught.

Ms. Chapman will be available to sign copies of Motherland after the recognition ceremony.

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